I'd like to discuss more how we might use our available space more better.

The classroom area, for which I am shamelessly appropriating the moninker "meatspace", is a lot more calming now that so much of the stuff is out of it (in my opinion).

What else can we do to the the meatspace better? Is it possible to have it work in an awesome way as both classroom, and the spot where everyone who's not creating sawdust gathers on wednesday nights?

I, for one, am finding that I'm trying to come up with some projecty stuff that I can be doing in the meatspace on Wednesdays, so that I don't miss out on all the fun stuff that's going on in there.

My feeling is that that room would work best as a dual purpose space, i.e. classroom when we're doing classroomy stuff, and cleanroom / gathering space with chairs and desks and power for laptops where people can work on bits and resistors and such while chatting.

Does anyone else feel this way? If yes, how can we improve the space even more for those uses?

If not, then what instead?

I'm also wondering what we'd like to do with the basement space.

I'm thinking that it might be time to find a new home for the airplane graveyard. I also think that whatever we do down there would benefit from better lighting and some anti-stank ventilation.

"lounge room" a few members expressed interest in an area to sit on the couch, and hang out, and folks didn't want it in the dust and noise of the shop, or to give up presentation space in the classroom, so the couch went downstairs.

the conflict is that in the recent shop cleaning, folks decided that (note thick sarcasm) those people in the lounge should breathe lead fumes, and the electronics bench went down there as well. realistically, if we can put in a fume extractor in, it's a good place for that bench as it'll draw the occasional person down, and is suitable for small classes.

already we've seen the lounge/cave used as a secondary classroom when we had 2 classed being taught at once.

personally, i'd like to see a 2nd couch, and a folding table live in there as lounge area that converts to small classroom, with the ele bench but some caddies to move the bucket of soldering irons and the like up to the classroom for a bigger class. and more light in there.

"classroom"several folks have expressed interest in putting ~6ish computer workstations in the classroom (i'm not fond of meatspace, imho the entire building is meatspace) and most of them seem to think that along the fence wall will be the least intrusive allowing for classes to use them, still see the projector, and not eat up tabletops.

frankly, the cyberoptics cnc can prolly go in the cnc nook, it'll prolly get more attention if it's in front of folks, and that corner could get the encoder table and 24" plotter (i'm really gonna try to find the cartridge i have for it before wed) or they could go in the not a door corner, to support the computer wall. if we shift all of the powereed tables over to the exterior wall a bit, and maybe put them in 2 U shapes facing the center of the room as "stock" position, it might open things up, or leave the room too spacious.

personally i'd like to see the exterior (not screen) wall be bare, with more white boards, and us just skootch that way a bit.

While the space has its charm, I think we should acknowledge that the HF as a facility is fairly sucky as a hackerspace:

1) No social area. This is a biggie. I didn't join the HF to use a drill, I have my own drill. I joined to hang out and collaborate with other nerds. The "classroom" is uncomfortable, ugly, and has hideous fluorescent lighting. We need couches, incandescent lighting, paint on the walls, carpet on the floors, and yes, also have tools and workbenches for non-dusty pursuits. And no, the "lounge" is not an acceptable substitute. On Wednesdays there are sometimes 20 people in the Meatspace and there is no way we could fit even half that many in that room in the basement. Bad connectivity and claustrophobia add to the wackness.

2) Excessively large wood shop. I'm not into it as much as other members are, and that's cool. But IMO the shop is bigger than it needs to be, and because of its dust, it dictates what goes on in the space. For instance, I wouldn't suggest that MAME stay there. The wood shop need to be smaller, and in an enclosed room, but where? The airplane room?

3) The metal shop also needs its on room to keep the noise in.

4) The airplane room is fairly useless for any purpose, unless we put drill presses and routers on the counters. There's a reason why it rarely gets used.

My point is, like NYC Resistor, PS:One, the Artifactory, the Transistor and other spaces who outgrew their space or otherwise couldn't make it work, we should consider looking for a different space. And since we seem perpetually unable to add net members, a smaller space might be more affordable. Wouldn't it be awesome to have a $500 surplus every month instead of just scraping by?

jwb wrote:4) The airplane room is fairly useless for any purpose, unless we put drill presses and routers on the counters. There's a reason why it rarely gets used.

On this one, I think there's great potential for this room if it just had some tables on locking castors. A tabletop flush with the counter space, with enough clearance underneath to allow opening and closing of the cabinets lining the sides of the room.

I'll take a photo of what the FIRST Robotics team came up with for a movable workbench on Wednesday (if I remember). Their solution was a stick-frame table of 1" steel square stock welded together and a 3/4" plywood top for a working surface. Painted a nice "safety blue" color...

Movable tabletops of this type might also be a great way to get the sewing machine setup or have multiple surfaces that you can surround yourself with for large jobs -- or piece together for one huge table.

Another decent design and very modular and easy to break down and store would simply be a 3/4" plywood top with some pipe threads in the bottomside corners. 1.75" or 2" pipes with threading on one end could then be threaded into each corner of the table and extended down to the floor to make a working surface of a specific height. When done working, you could just tip the table sideways and unscrew all the legs.

I'd say hang those beautiful airplanes up! Tie a stick to a rope and toss it up into the factory's rafters and then hoist them up for display/out of the way...

If this thread is about how we as a group incorporate a comfy lounge space, then I think this is still on topic.

There are spaces available very near the current HF. 4000sq ft right next door, and a 10,000 sq ft space two blocks down 31st, has loading dock and drive in type doors it seems. I have no idea if we are "getting a good deal" on our current space, but would agree that it's hard to match use needs with the current setup, and the alley down the center, really guts a lot of useful space.Is it worth pricing other locations? We are, I believe on a month to month lease right now, so if there consensus we could do better, now might be an opportune time to look.